Why are shopping records being broken with a looming recession?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Despite high inflation, mass tech layoffs, and a weak economic outlook, more Americans have opened their wallets and shopped this year than in previous years.

A record 196.7 million Americans shopped in stores and online during the five-day holiday shopping period from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, according to the annual survey released Friday by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.

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The total number of shoppers grew by nearly 17 million from 2021 and is the highest figure since NRF first started tracking this data in 2017.

"It's been a rough couple of years," ," said Charles Lindsey, Associate Professor of Marketing, University at Buffalo School of Management. "People this year really want to celebrate, they want to indulge a little bit and there's a lot of what economists call pent up demand and that is really being reflected."

He attributes the uptick to several factors - fears that inflation will push prices further later as well as a longer holiday shopping season that has retailers extending deep discounts have seen more people stock up.

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About 10 year ago, 10% of individuals indicated that they completed their holiday shopping by the beginning of November now it's about double, almost 20%, one in five," Lindsey said.

Retailers are doing a lot of discounting relative to last year and the year before. Several giant retailers such as Amazon, Walmart and Target offered early deals starting in October.

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Even if household budgets have been impacted by high inflation and the poor economy, many are not letting that stop them.

"We're seeing a lot of reliance on debt on credit card debt we're seeing a lot of reliance this year relative to last year on "Buy now pay later" programs as well," Lindsey said.